Elon Musk says Tesla’s self-driving cars will be able to travel between Los Angeles and New York City by the end of this year.

The Tesla CEO made an appearance at a TED conference in Vancouver on Friday where he spoke about the status of his driverless cars and revealed details about his radical tunneling project.

Musk also said Tesla’s Model 3 production should start in July.

He said Tesla cars should be able to go fully autonomously by the end of the year from LA to New York without a driver ever having to touch a control.

When asked ‘How long until you can get in your car, fall asleep, and wake up at your destination?’ Musk replied ‘2 years’.

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk made an appearance at a TED conference in Vancouver on Friday where he spoke about the status of his driverless cars

However, he admitted drivers should probably still stay awake.

‘If a car crashes 1 in a 1,000 times, you are probably still not going to be comfortable falling asleep,’ Musk said.

‘You shouldn’t be certainly.’

During the TED appearance, Musk showed off a new video of electric ‘skates’ transporting cars in a narrow tunnel under a city before raising them back to street level in a space as small as two parking spaces.

Inside the tunnels, Musk said cars could travel as fast as 200 kilometers per hour (roughly 130 MPH) according to Axois.

‘You should be able to go from say Westwood to LAX in 5-6 minutes,’ the Tesla and SpaceX founder said.

He admitted he is spending only 2-3 per cent on the tunnel effort, which was ‘mainly interns’.

Musk also defended his meetings with President Trump, saying: ‘I’ve used the meetings I’ve had to argue in favor of immigration and climate change.’

He hit back at claims he was the ‘savior of humanity’ with his wide ranging ambitions to do everything from create green energy to populate Mars, saying ‘I’m not trying to be anyone’s savior.

‘I’m just trying to think about the future and not be sad.’

Musk also revealed details about his radical tunneling project and showed off a new video (above) of electric ‘skates’ transporting cars in a narrow tunnel under a city

During the TED talk, Musk also defended his meetings with President Trump, saying: ‘I’ve used the meetings I’ve had to argue in favor of immigration and climate change’

Musk also revealed a teaser of the semi truck Tesla plans to introduce later this year, saying it will be ‘like a sportscar’

‘This will be a very spry truck,’ he said. ‘You can drive it around like a sports car.’

Yesterday an Instagram user believed to be a SpaceX employee has tweeted a picture of what appears to be the firm’s first tunneling machine – although it was later removed from his account.

The giant machine is expected to be used by the firm to dig test tunnels as Musk tries to improve on existing boring machines.

Earlier this year MailOnline exclusively revealed images of Musk’s tunnel, which his ‘Boring Company’ has begun digging just outside his SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California.

The new images reveal excavators, cranes and security personnel surrounding a large hole in the ground.

This hole is likely where the huge Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) – revealed as ‘Nannie’ by Musk on Friday – was first lowered to begin digging.

The tunnel is legal because it has been dug on private property. But extending the tunnel further than SpaceX’s headquarters would require more discussion, paperwork, and LA City council approval.

‘We’re just going to figure out what it takes to improve tunneling speed by, I think, somewhere between 500 and 1,000 per cent,’ he said during a Hyperloop design competition at SpaceX earlier this month.